Social media clients are a huge part of the Pyrois Media roster in addition to it being a big part of Pyrois Media’s own marketing plan so I’m always looking for new and improved ways to provide the best experience possible both for my clients and myself.
With that in mind, I have various tools on both my computer and phone that not only enhance posts but also make life much easier when creating and scheduling those posts. Here are a few tools that I rely on for every post.
Facebook Business & Twitter Schedulers
Plans for a month’s worth of Facebook and Instagram posts on Facebook Business.
I’m a big believer in using tools the actual social media platforms provide for us. Every Sunday, I sit down for a few hours and schedule out many of the posts you see during the week. Not every single post is scheduled (it’d make me a lot of money if I knew who their winners were going to be ahead of time!) but many of them are.
The scheduling features do have a few cons, such as not being able to tag people in scheduled Twitter posts, but all in all I find that they’re more convenient than the third-party scheduling apps.
Draft Folders
The bad thing about the Facebook Business scheduler is that it doesn’t let you schedule Instagram Reels. With that in mind, I take advantage of the drafts folder on Instagram and set an alarm on my phone to remind me when to post. I usually have three or four drafts set to go in there, so I just have to push live when my alarm goes off. It’s not the most convenient thing in the world, but it’s much better than saving a Reel on my phone and having to find it and set it up when it’s time to post.
HitFilm Express
What it looks like editing a video in HitFilm Express.
HitFilm has been a mainstay on many of my computers for years as a video editor. It is free and comes with a lot of different options on it. Now that I’m doing more social media video for both myself and clients, I use it to do edits for bigger videos that aren’t shot directly on my phone (such as those I’ve shot on my Nikon D5). It is intuitive to use and has easy-to-access guides for those few tools that aren’t intuitive, so it is a win all around. I don’t run every single social media video through it – usually those I shoot on my phone go straight from phone to platform – but if they’re not phone-shot, they’ll usually go into HitFilm for a few minutes.
HypeText
If you’ve seen my Friday FastFacts video, you’ve seen HypeText in action. It lets me easily make intro/extro slides for any videos I do and any other sort of story graphic I need to do that the social media platforms don’t let me design. The app has plenty of different templates you can use if you don’t want to create your own and is pretty user friendly.
Video Speed Changer
I love my Galaxy phone but the one bad thing about it is that I can’t speed up parts of videos with any of the phone’s included tools. That’s where Video Speed Changer comes in. Its name is just what it implies, it can slow down or speed up all or parts of videos if needed. It can be a little annoying to use at times because the app itself can be slow moving (pun not intended) but it gets the job done and does a good job with it. It also doesn’t drop the quality of the video, which can be an issue with other apps I’ve used.
Download Twitter Videos
This is honestly one of my most used tools. Oftentimes there are high quality videos posted in tweets that you can’t find anywhere else on the internet and if you can, you usually have to screen record them (which comes with its own issues) so being able to download directly from Twitter is a brain saver. It also works well for my own videos if I’ve previously posted them and can no longer find them so it’s truly one of my favorite apps that I keep in the “Social Media Tools” folder on my phone.
Are there helpful social media tools that you just can’t live without? Let me know below in the comments!
If you aren’t sure where to start on getting social media accounts up and running, Pyrois Media offers both social media consulting and management services. Email Melissa@PyroisMedia.com for more information.
Have a topic you’d like to see covered here? Email Melissa@PyroisMedia.com with your suggestions and you could see it in a future blog!